Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Britney Spears - Doesn't Exist

Ad Bites the Dust after 7 complaints.

Sky TV (cable in NZ) billboard was selling its services using a photo of Britney Spears climbing out of a car, camera angle looking up her skirt revealing she was not wearing underwear. Panties were drawn over her crotch. Slogan on ad: “Something Everyone Wants To See”

7 Complaints were filed and were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority. Lawyers for Sky and the Ad agency, DDB New Zealand’s defense was that it appeared the complainants were unaware Spears had been pictured last year getting out of a car without underwear because the idea for the ad was that people wouldn’t want to see Britney’s bits(Kiwi slang for any thing) but there was something they would want to see on Sky.

Huh? In other words, the defense was based on the premise that it’s okay to degrade women if you are making fun of them. I don’t think 7 complaints would have made any difference in New York. Sometimes it is nice to live in a small community. However, this ad would never appear in New York either. For a small country there are a large amount of ads here which depict women in an extremely degrading way, on billboards and on TV.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Burger King and Dangerous Diane

It's only been days since i posted my blog about BURGER KING with it's highly misogynist TV ad (see description below) and I'm happy to report it no longer exists!!

Since I have never seen a complaint about this ad anywhere, I can only guess that my blog must have made a difference. Yeah! We can change the world and make a difference.

On other bad advertising: Ribena, a sugar water drink has been deliberately misrepresenting itself as containing Vitamin C for years. It took three high school girls to test the stuff to discover it contained no Vitamin C. It's only fair to say the girls contacted the company first to inform them, they were ignored. And now ribena has an ad on TV explaining it was not their intention to mislead people, it was their methods of testing.

Poets and Writers

Living in New Zealand I missed the magazine Poets and Writers. It wasn't available at the library and no store would order it for me, so I put in a special request at the library and they said, "we'll see." After five months of waiting, it is now available in the literary section. If nothing else, I can be proud of this cultural import from the U.S. to New Zealand. My experience of Kiwi hatred of what they consume from the U.S. is interesting, but Poets and Writers is a fine publication I'm sure New Zealanders will love.

Monday, May 14, 2007

This strange land called New Zealand

Musings about this strange land called New Zealand for May

Kiwi TV: I only get 3 channels and one fuzzy music channel.

The best show: Kath and Kim, an Australian show (an import) about making fun of the affluent working class. Very funny and someday (in the art imitates life file), we will see that this show arguably predicted the fall of the economy for its hilarous send ups to the disease called consumerism.

Music video: Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion’s bastard child’s new video "Girlfriend" is about the joys of bullying: stealing another woman’s man just because she can and hurt her too, emotionally and physically to the amusement of the extras.

Ad for Kiwi Police: 4 blokes bored about one of their mates re-telling some ‘work’ story, selling the idea that you will have better work stories if you join the New Zealand police, destroying any credibility of belief that there is privacy when one is a victim of a crime. No matter what you do, you may be a story too around the barbie. Nominated as the number one irony ad for the stories that have surfaced lately about the conduct of the NZ police: rape, bestiality, group sex, and more.

Ad for Burger King: The most degrading women’s ad on TV I’veg seen this month. Four young women, called BK girls (it sounds like BJ girls) in bikinis sharing everything together, from bikinis to a bed to a burger king hamburger (with head thrown back and wide pouting lips) to golden showers....(golden showers: actual words in the narrated voice-over of this ad) to describe the bikini clad women dancing in water from what appears to be a garden hose sprinkler.

Ad: runner up for worst of May: Toyota promoting its car with a film showing two cars racing. Bad taste considering how many people are killed (and some become martyrs)die every month in NZ from ‘boy racing”. The police claim to be helpless to stop it. I have a suggestion, take away their license AND the car.

TV news: two Pakeha reporters grinning ear to ear as they "report" the latest "news" on Paris Hilton as if their reporting on her sentence is at a higher level than what she did to get 45 days in jail (driving with a suspended license for drink driving because she doesn't read, only signs what she is told to sign, hence not knowing she signed a document that her license was suspended.)

Runner up for best TV show: coming